Bigger store is on its way

SAINSBURY’S extension has been given the go-ahead – despite a last minute plea from a developer wanting to build a major new foodstore on Bakewell Road.

Derbyshire Dales District Council passed the application – which will see the Cawdor Way store grow by over 50 per cent and a single deck car park built.

Councillors received a late letter from David Alcock and Partners revealing the company’s intention to create a supermarket – even bigger than the expanded Sainsbury’s – as well as ‘high quality’ shops and units for community uses.

David Alcock, acting on behalf of a client, said the decision to approve Sainsbury’s could cause them to reconsider their plans for the site, resulting in a loss of investment in the town centre.

He added: “I can confirm that there is a very real risk surrounding deliverability of the Bakewell Road scheme should the Sainsbury’s extension be permitted.

Mr Alcock, who has met with the district council’s head of planning Paul Wilson, on several occasions, said he was meeting with planners again this month and hoped to start preparing a planning application soon.

He said his scheme could be delivered well within five years and Sainsbury’s proposals went against planning policy, which stated town centre sites should be looked at first.

But Mr Wilson, said in the council meeting on Tuesday, that by 2017, when the Bakewell Road site was ready for development, there would be sufficient expenditure to support both sites.